Texas Militia

Militias are not illegal. Militias are authorized by the US Constitution. Militias are against having another revolution in the United States. Militias are for a literal interpretation of the United States Constitution as the founding fathers intended with a strong emphasis on the bill of rights, states rights, and a limited federal government.

To join our Texas Militia:

1. You must be a rifle owning USA Citizen who is willing to uphold and defend the United States Constitution against all enemies both foreign and domestic.
2. You must be physically fit enough to patrol keeping up with us carrying at least your rifle, 6 spare loaded magazines, and two quarts of water.
3. You must come out and train with us.

Militiamen realize, as did the founding fathers who threw off the tyranny of the British; that our rights come directly from God himself who is a higher authority than any government.

On April 19, 1775 when government troops marched on Lexington and Concord to begin gun confiscation it was militiamen who stopped them firing the shot against tyranny that was heard around the world which started the United States of America. Without the militia there never would have been a USA.

Militias are for enforcing the US Constitution and recognizing it as the supreme law of the land superior to any international treaties and superior to any Untied Nations rulings. Militias are the last line of defense against tyranny and invasion.

The Second Amendment is not about the right to keep firearms to go hunting. The Second Amendment is about the right of the people to keep and bear firearms to prevent a tyrannical government from infringing upon our God given rights and to ensure our ability to uphold and defend the constitution against all enemies both foreign and domestic.

Our Texas Militia is focused on small unit light infantry combat training so we can defend our God given constitutional rights. Rather than just build up a militia in one location, we train men to start at least a 3 man fire team in their own neighborhood either now or for in the future in case of foreign invasion or gun confiscation.

Free Training

Unlike some other militias in Texas we never charge for anything. We have no dues and no membership application fees. We do not require any background checks and we do not require you to have a concealed handgun carry permit. We don't have any restaurant meetings and we don't do any meet and greets. We only meet for training.

As an all volunteer force the militia differs from the military. All of our Texas Militia units are autonomous. No militia unit commands any other militia unit and we do not need a state militia commander or a centralized militia command which could be taken out or compromised. All patriots are encouraged to start at least a 3 man fire team in their neighborhood or area and build up from there. A good way to start a local militia is to have a neighborhood watch meeting to meet and screen the hard core patriots to recruit for a fire team.

We want everyone trained and ready to start fire teams for force multiplication as masses of people wake up. If militiamen grouped up in large numbers we would be an easy target for the enemy to find and eliminate. Also realize that if the UN starts gun confiscation or if the Chinese or Russians invade that vehicular transportation and electronic communication will go down quickly. So we don't need a command structure any higher than the fire team or squad level since the only effective means of resistance for the militia would be that of many scattered neighborhood fire teams waging hit and run guerrilla warfare from a multitude of locations so the invaders would never know where, when, or from what directions they would be hit from next.

It is good if you have had some military training but realize that militia tactics differ from military tactics. The goals of military tactics are to rapidly take and then hold ground while incurring acceptable losses. The militia has no need to rapidly take ground and no need to hold ground. Rather than incur acceptable losses the militia must minimize losses.

The militia trains to fight an extended war of hit and run attrition until the invaders lose the will to fight. The militia teaches guerrilla warfare modified military tactics not military sweep through with acceptable losses tactics.

Rather than a top down command structure (which could be taken out or compromised) our Texas Militia is united by our common goal and standard operating procedure of maintaining our God given constitutional rights and upholding and defending the US Constitution against all enemies both foreign and domestic.

Here is an excellent video illustrating the importance of the militia and our right to keep and bear firearms: "2A Today for The USA" click here to watch.

If our freedom is attacked it won't matter much how well trained any one Texas Militia unit is if there are not enough militia units. We need as many militia units as we can get throughout Texas to keep any invaders or enemies of freedom bogged down on hundreds of simultaneous fronts to ensure our victory.

We encourage all patriots to train with us and then start at least a 3 man fire team in their neighborhood or area.

All patriots need to be combat trained force multipliers ready for the day when vast numbers of Americans (who have been pushed too far by the leftists) are ready join with the militia in defense of our God given constitutional rights.

Our militia training exercises require physical exertion such as patrolling with a rifle, at least 4 to 6 loaded spare magazines, a load bearing vest or web gear to carry the magazines, a CamelBak or a canteen, and other essential battle gear.

To participate in the militia and to be combat effective you do not have to have an expensive semi-automatic rifle. If you need to save money you could get by with a military surplus bolt action rifle and military surplus gear. To see how to equip yourself on a budget click here.

Texas Militia Training Exercise

Saturday, March 23, 2024
Location: near Colmesneil, Texas - East Texas

To See Where Colmesneil, TX is Click Here

ATTENTION MILITIAMEN: The Texas Militia is having a by invitation only training exercise on private land for rifle owning patriotic USA Citizens starting at 8 am Saturday, March 23, 2024. Do not come on to the training area property until after we unlock the gate at 8 am Saturday, March 23, 2024. You can camp out with us that Saturday night to continue training with us Sunday morning or you can go home that Saturday night.

We will have live rifle and pistol fire on steel reactive targets so eye protection is mandatory.

We will have militia small unit light infantry combat training and force on force combat simulations using blank ammunition. After each battle we will have a debriefing to go over what we have learned from each combat simulation. Because our goal is to learn it doesn't matter which team wins each battle. The true winners are those who have learned something.

We will have blanks on hand in .223, 7.62x39, and .308 for all participants in the combat simulations. You are welcome to bring your own blanks or we will have some we can sell you at our cost. If you don't have a blank adapter you can cycle your rifle by hand after each shot. For safety you must present your blanks and just one empty magazine for inspection, then load the blanks in front of a witness, then lock all other magazines and all live rounds in you vehicle. That way no one can load a magazine with live rounds by mistake.

We are not meeting just to sit around and talk. All men attending our training exercises must be physically fit enough to patrol with a rifle, web gear, canteen or CamelBak, and at least 4 to 6 loaded spare magazines. No news media or journalists of any kind will be allowed. No alcohol, drugs, or illegal weapons will be allowed. Cell phones and cameras must remain in your vehicle. No one under 18 years of age is allowed at our training exercises. Anyone you bring with you except for your wife or girlfriend must email us for a separate invitation.

Our militia training is free of charge. Our training is focused on small unit light infantry combat tactics. If you have to drive very far you can pack the night before, go to bed early, and then get up at 4 or 5 am that morning to head out.

We will practice ambushes, counter-ambushes, and patrolling. We will also have class room type training so bring a note book and a pencil too. Our force on force small unit light infantry battle training with blanks will be conducted as combat simulations to learn from not as games.

Bring your rifle, handgun, ammo, battle load, web gear, CamelBak or canteen, camping gear (if you are camping out with us), folding or camp chair (if you don't want to sit on the ground), entrenching tool/folding shovel, toilet paper, drinking water, flashlight, what you want to eat and rain gear in case of rain. So we will have more time for training you should bring food that is already cooked that only needs to be warmed. Wear camouflage BDUs if you have them or you can wear hunting camo if you don't have BDUs or you can even wear dark earth toned street clothes if you don't have camo. If you don't have it all, bring what you can and collect what you don't have over time. Adapt, improvise, and overcome.

For recommended militia gear and how to set it up click here.

We don't care if you have a permit to carry a concealed handgun or not and we don't do criminal history background checks but to train with us you must own and bring a rifle larger than a .22 rimfire.

Email us at: Contact-Texas-Militia@protonmail.com
(copy and paste the above email address into your email send to line)
if you want to be considered to be invited to train with us on Saturday, March 23, 2024 near Colmesneil, TX. Tell us about yourself, your age, and what city in Texas you live in or live closest to.

Some e-mail service providers are anti-militia and are falsely calling all of our e-mails spam so if you e-mail us be sure to put us on your address list, safe list, or send to list, and also check your spam folder for our reply. If you don't get a reply from us try emailing us with a different email provider.

"At least once every human should have to run for his life, to teach him that milk does not come from supermarkets, that safety does not come from policemen, that 'news' is not something that happens to other people. He might learn how his ancestors lived and that he himself is no different--in the crunch his life depends on his agility, alertness, and personal resourcefulness." -- Robert A. Heinlein

Your first mistake on a battlefield could be your last mistake. We all need to train and we need to train often. Most men are already proficient with a rifle. What you can learn training with us are small unit light infantry combat tactics, how to fight as a team, the art of fire and maneuver, and how to train a local defense group to fight as a team.

This is why you should train with a militia; if a group of 12 hunters with no small unit light infantry military or militia experience fought against an equally equipped invading foreign military 12 man long range reconnaissance patrol the group of hunters would be wiped out 9 times out of 10 because the hunters do not know the art of fire and maneuver and they do not know how to coordinate their efforts to fight as a team. The small unit light infantry training we provide militiamen will make them highly effective force multipliers and they will be better able to implement Mark Koernke's 5/10 plan (the 5/10 plan is for all militiamen who can to store firearms, ammunition, and equipment to outfit 5 to 10 additional militiamen).

If World War III starts then electronic communication and vehicular transportation will go down so you might not be able to link up with your existing fire team but you can quickly train patriots you meet if you have learned how to fight as a team from our militia training.

It is up to each fire team to decide which camouflage pattern and colors are best for their area of operation. We do not require militiamen to wear Multicam BDU's. Mulitcam is good for West Texas but Army Woodland BDU's and Marine Woodland Digital BDUs are much more effective than Multicam in East Texas and they cost less than Multicam. Multicam is too light a color and to brown to blend in well in East Texas 90 percent of the time where the predominant color is green until we occasionally get into winter brown out conditions. Olive drab is also good and it does not fade out like camo. Hunting camo can work well in the fall and winter. Dark earth tone street clothes (dark greens and browns) also work well and sometimes (such as if you have to travel during martial law) could be better than camo since camo immediately identifies you as a combatant. ACU stands our everywhere. Black BDU's are not recommended either. Black BDU's stand out because black is not a predominant color in nature and even during the night they are darker than the skyline. Nazi Storm Troopers started the back uniform nonsense just to intimidate people.

Do not wash your BDU's in laundry detergent since all laundry detergent contains UV dyes and brighteners which stands out to the naked eye and to night vision devices. Only wash BDU's with baking soda, dish soap, sports wash, or bar soap shavings and wash them in a bucket by hand since all washing machines never drain out all the water but retain water for ballast. Then hang your BDU's out to dry to avoid the UV dye left in clothes dryers.

For recommended militia gear click here

For recommended militia rifles click here

We recommend these websites with excellent information for militiamen:

Tire Iron's Corner, tactical lessons for militiamen from a former US Marine Special Forces Operator.

Tire Iron's Blog, more tactical lessons for militiamen from a former US Marine Special Forces Operator.

American Partisan, analysis, information, and tools for preserving Western Civilization.

Patriot War College, militia strategy and tactics.

KISS ANTI-TERRORIST ALLIANCE, militia strategy and equipment

Mountain Guerrilla, tactics by a former Special Forces Operator.

A Well Regulated Militia, a militia discussion forum.

We support Active Duty US Military, Veterans, and Police who will honor their oaths to uphold and defend the US Constitution against all enemies both foreign and domestic and who promise not to obey any unlawful orders:

1. We will NOT obey orders to disarm the American people.
2. We will NOT obey orders to conduct warrantless searches of the American people.
3. We will NOT obey orders to detain American citizens as unlawful enemy combatants or to subject them to military tribunal.
4. We will NOT obey orders to impose martial law or a state of emergency on a state.
5. We will NOT obey orders to invade and subjugate any state that asserts its sovereignty.
6. We will NOT obey any order to blockade American cities, thus turning them into giant concentration camps.
7. We will NOT obey any order to force American citizens into any form of detention camps under any pretext.
8. We will NOT obey orders to assist or support the use of any foreign troops on U.S. soil against the American people to keep the peace or to maintain control.
9. We will NOT obey any orders to confiscate the property of the American people, including food and other essential supplies.
10. We will NOT obey any orders which infringe on the right of the people to free speech, to peaceably assemble, and to petition their government for a redress of grievances.

"I accept the definition of patriotism as that effort to resist oppressive state power. The true patriot is motivated by a sense of responsibility, and out of self interest -- for himself, his family, and the future of his country -- to resist government abuse of power. He rejects the notion that patriotism means obedience to the state." Congressman Ron Paul

"All of the armies of Asia and Europe cannot by force of arms take a drink from the Ohio river nor lay a track upon the Blue Ridge mountains. If this nation is to fall it shall fall first from treachery from within and then by forces of arms from without. Decide how you wish to live. Pass on your arms to those who will fight if you will not. May your chains rest lightly if you do so. If you are going to hang on to them then know how to use them. Victory over the invader." Mark Gregory Koernke

There are many excellent instructional militia videos Mark Koernke has made:
How To Put Together Simple Load Bearing Equipment (web gear)
www.youtube.com/watch?v=rs0f0W7B5kc&feature=related

Equipping For The New World Order by Mark Koernke

Here is Part 1
www.youtube.com/watch?v=qNNnHe3MzTU&feature=related

Mark Koernke has more instructional militia videos here:

www.youtube.com/profile?user=Libertytreeradio&view=videos

Many good videos are often deleted by YouTube. We recommend you save Mark Koernke's instructional videos and all good videos you find to your hard drive then burn them to disks to hand out to people in your militia group to watch and learn from. YouTube has made changes to their videos trying to keep people from downloading them. The best free YouTube downloader that we know works is 4K Video Downloader.

The best free .mp4 and .flv player we have found for playing downloaded YouTube videos is VLC media player. It will play full screen. Always choose "Custom Install" when installing these or any other programs to avoid trojans and spy ware.

Mark Koernke's militia/patriot internet radio program THE INTELLIGENCE REPORT is on three hours a day Monday thru Friday. To hear Mark Koernke's 4pm, 5pm and 7pm programs go to www.libertytreeradio.4mg.com

From Vol. 1, Issue 3 of Republic Magazine

Militia: Property of...We The People

By Mark Gregory Koernke

Before the republic, before the Articles of Confederation, before the Declaration of Independence, there was the militia.

There are those in the controlled media and in government that would like you to forget, or better still, have no knowledge of this. These people are Statists and powermongers who know the history of this nation and intentionally misrepresent it. With great effort they do all that they are told to do, to attack and vilify the word "militia" and the concept that it represents.

What is it that these political hacks are trying to accomplish? Who is it that is promoting this agenda from behind the scenes? There are many questions that need to be asked even though it is unlikely that we will get an answer from the shadows of the corrupted halls of government.

Know this and dwell upon these thoughts for a little while. Without the militia, the independence of this nation would have never become a reality. Just as true is that without the militia our ongoing fight for liberty would not have been maintained. Once this is considered it is then obvious why certain elements, alien to our form of government, would want you to dislike it and to have it done away with. The militia is the shield and sword of liberty. If you are foolish enough to throw them down then it is that much easier for a tyrant to enslave you at little or no cost to him or herself.

"Militia," the word itself has a long and important history. The sovereign free man is endowed with many rights given to him by his creator. However, that does not mean that monarchs, rulers or leaders will honor the words expressed in whatever contract of governance is in place if they are swayed by greed or poor judgment. One man by himself stands little chance of securing his liberty, property and personal wealth when faced with organized thievery. Such threats can come from many directions both from within and outside of government in its many forms. It is for this reason that the common man of the west, traditionally, has organized in his community to provide defense through mutual organization and cooperation.

There is a long and well-developed history that can show the truth of this statement. The purpose of these militia forces as they developed was to protect the members from external and internal threats, both physically and administratively, by compact. First a civil solution would be sought and if the threat was still perceived, then the militia was there to protect and defend the community.

The militia has been and continues to be part of the checks and balances system that was established here in these United States by "we the people." It was the most significant and positive force in the founding of this nation.

Let me ask you a question. What year did the War for Independence start? Most people would say the Fourth of July 1776, and they would be wrong.

The war started on the 19th of April, 1775. I ask that you take a moment and think about this. Your response may have been July 4, too. Who placed that thought there and why? If you question the date then go to the history books and look at the timeline. There is a full 16-month difference in the answer.

The reason that I bring this forward as a question is because it establishes the groundwork for the next question that I will ask. On what day was the "vote" cast to start the war and who voted? There was no vote except for the single trigger pull that cast the first "lead" ballot and then a few moments later a whole bunch of other "lead" ballots were cast. That is the reality that was traditionally taught in our schools with great pride and regularity. As you may know the event was later known as the battles of Lexington and Concord. It was the local militia that fought these actions. All of the militias that participated had organized long before the war began in response to a series of direct threats to the people's liberty.

I would point out that the patriot militia did not just decide to arbitrarily start the war. As it says in the Declaration of Independence, "a long train of abuses" had been laid out before the people. Each of these abuses had been meet with protest in written form. The Fairfax and Sulfax resolves were the last in a long list of documents laid before the feet of the crown and received with ridicule and scorn. The men that served as delegates during these actions were in most cases members and leaders of militias in their respective counties and states.

George Washington was one of the delegates that helped to deliver the Fairfax resolves to the crown and there were many others. The ultimate demonstration of the need for the militia came with the deployment of "regulars" from England that numbered in the thousands. Not only were they a force of occupation but also a form of organic camera to spy upon the people by being force-quartered in the homes of the people in a time of peace. The people organized and expanded the many militias across the colonies as a counterweight to the forces brought into their very homes. This did not bode well for the professional forces that the crown had sent.

Contrary to their modern rewriting of our history books by the "globalists," the militia was not only the dominant fighting force during the war, but also highly effective. The militia's numbers always exceeded the force strength of the Congress' "regulars." As they eventually were organized and contrary to the "professional" opinion of the regulars that were primarily engaged in the history books with promoting themselves, the militia fought the majority of the ground actions of the war.

In later years, those who would want to engineer the people away from supporting the militia concept would always be selective in their reporting of the history of the militia to downplay it and promote a larger and larger "professional" force; the very thing that the founding fathers warned everyone about. One need only go to any of the major battlefields of the Revolutionary War to get a better understanding of the true ability of the militia. Saratoga, Cowpens, Ticonderoga and many more attest to the patriot militia's prowess on the battlefield of the day.

Why then would there be an ongoing attack of militia performance? The answer lies in the words of the men who founded this nation and their warnings to future generations.

To understand the founding fathers intent we need to be able to see into their minds. We can, to a certain degree, do this because of their efforts to communicate to the people in public debate through the print medium of their day. Many of these documents are available in reprinted form and are even in paperback form. I would recommend to any interested reader "The Federalist Papers" and "The Anti-Federalist Papers" to better understand the mind set of those who survived the war and participated in our many forms of government as they developed.

While these men addressed many subjects, one that was foremost in their minds was the issue of arms and the militia. Centralized force was looked upon with mistrust and distain in many cases. As can be seen by the writings, the majority stated that the people must be the "wardens of the armed, might of the nation, lest it run ruff shod (sic) over the rights of the people." The militia was envisioned as the check against excess by government at every level, for the whole of the people would be armed. It was true then and it is true to this day. Those who would wish you to be an unarmed peasant have visions of empire on their mind and you will note that the talking heads of this day in the last month or so are promoting just that on the "boob tube," radio and in print. This is the very thing that the framers warned us about time and again.

Several times throughout our history in military affairs, it is the militia that has either saved the day or restrained our "regular" forces from actions contrary to the nature of the campaign or battle our forces were engaged in. One example of this can be seen in the War of 1812. A combined force of "regulars" and militia fought in the southeastern part of Michigan and eventually took Detroit and moved across the river into Ontario where they faced an inferior force of retired British soldiers and Canadian militia. The American force defeated the Commonwealth forces and put them to foot. The "regular" forces officers wanted to continue with an attack upon the rest of Canada with conquest in mind. The militia commanders and their forces refused to participate because the battle had been joined to eliminate the threat and not invade and occupy Canada. Although there was disagreement, the militia won out, as it was obvious that without the strength of the militia no "conquest" and occupation would be possible.

In another action of the War of 1812, it was the militia that drove the British from the capital of the country as more than 28,000 militia descended upon the invaders from across the nearby states. The "regulars" had not been able to stop the British from invading the city. Almost all of Andrew Jackson's force in the Battle of New Orleans was made up of militia and they faced down the single-best combat units on the planet of that day. Again, a unique American experience.

Does this mean that the militia fought to perfection through out its history? Of course they didn't. There are militia formations that fought well and there are others that did not, just as there were and are "regular" army forces both of good and bad quality. Where human beings are involved there will be variations based upon experience, training and a wide number of other variables.

Independent militia formations have existed throughout our nation's history from the Revolutionary war through to present day. The Green Mountain boys are one example from the 1700s. Another more recent example that most Americans know about but usually do not relate with the word "militia" were the Rough Riders of Teddy Roosevelt fame. They were a militia? Why yes, they were, and a fully independent one at that. They were mustered by Mr. Roosevelt and privately armed to include the fact that colt donated machine guns to the militia unit for their use. They mobilized and went into service just as many other units did during the Spanish-American war.

So how did the word militia become a "bad" word in government circles? Well, the truth be told it is still used today and must be in order for the "system" to exist at all for all, I will repeat, ALL United States fighting forces to include the active army are MILITIA. The difference is that the militia that make up the regular army are called the "active militia" where as all Americans that are not part of the "active militia" are members of the "inactive militia." The militia is "we the people," literally.

But just as the founding fathers warned it could happen, the focus is now on promoting central federal control in an attempt to usurp the power of the militia and make it an offensive force rather than a defensive force. Think back to the incident during the War of 1812 and the militia as the check against over zealous ambition on the part of those in power and you can see why playing down the militia or badmouthing it would be in the interest of certain parties.

This brings us to the present day. We have many examples of the failure of our system because of centralized power at the federal level that is both distant and destructive. This centralization of power is a threat to the safety and peace of our nation just as it was in the hands of the crown more than 230 years ago. Once power becomes centralized, with no counter force to keep it in check, and is combined with devious minds in positions of authority, it is only a matter of when that power will be used wrongly.

The attack on the Branch Davidians by a combination of federal and foreign forces is one example. The utter failure, intentionally, to respond in a timely fashion to the Katrina storm are demonstrations of the abuse of power with ulterior motives and these are only a few of the many abuses perpetrated over several years.

It is the militia in its most recent form that has kept in check to any degree those who would hope to enslave us once again. It is the unsung efforts of the militia that has kept the beast at bay. It is the militia that can help to restore stability to our local and state government along with following the constitution itself at the federal level and the many state constitutions at the state level.

Here is just one example of many from the Katrina fiasco that shows where the militia would have changed the demeanor of the situation as it developed. As we know, many people did evacuate from the coastal parts of the storm affected areas. So, where did they go? Well, many went as far as a tank of gas would take them with no clear destination in mind.

Some of you reading this may have been in the "impact" areas where this mass of people ended up. In these affected areas many of the local police (policy enforcement officers) or county deputies (peace officers) could be counted in numbers using no more than both hands. In some cases as few as six men may have constituted the total number of peace officers available. They were quickly overwhelmed as petty theft and break-ins escalated with every hour. There was no relief contrary to all of the propaganda and promises by FEMA and Heartland/Homeland security in years of meetings before the crisis.

The mistake was putting trust in people so far away from the problem that they truly didn't care. Because of their remoteness, along with other political agendas having to do with manipulation, the distant federal agencies held back assistance and blocked all traditional forms of assistance from coming in wherever they could. This intentional failure cost lives and a vast wealth of personal property. The people in these areas got to see firsthand that centralization combined with abusive government kills, literally.

So what could have been done better and before hand? Well, consider this. In the traditional model that "Big Gubermint" told the locals to throw out the militia at the local level, would have mobilized to immediately assist local peace officers with the problem. This would include assistance with traffic control, securing local assets such as water treatment and food storage while also performing patrols of local areas to prevent looting and other confrontations. It would also include assistance to those displaced using common sense. This is what the local militia was intended for.

Think about it. Who knows the community better and how to deal with the many personalities that make up that local community? Would a local force make more sense or a bunch of steroid-filled cops from California like the ones that stomped the grandma into the ground when they were going house to house to confiscate guns from people who had survived the storm and protected their homes? The local militia would know better. The local militia would not leave women helpless and alone in a nursing home to be raped repeatedly and then stabbed to death by thugs as the FEMA police did. They would not let it happen. The militia would have risked any threat because they live there and it could be their mothers or grandmothers threatened. The militia is the property of "we the people" and if we fail to maintain ownership then the tyrant will step in because he perceives weakness.

Other examples contrary to the propaganda of the controlled media about the militia include the Oklahoma City bombing. Do a little research by going through the archives that contain pictures of the first responders that were there at the blast site. Look closely and you will see truck caps on the back of trucks with the words "militia" on them. These were local Oklahoma militia that were there, who risked their lives just as many others did to help with the situation. It was right there in front of everyone, but it was not the propaganda that the critters in charge wanted out or for people to see. How many of you looked at those pictures and didn't notice until I pointed them out? This is just one of many examples of lies by omission. There is much to learn and in some cases unlearn if it was bad data that was entered.

Ask yourself this. If everything going on is on the up and up, then what have the powers that be to worry about from the people, armed or otherwise?

We come full circle to the beginning of the history of the militia. Its purpose is to protect us from those that think that they have the authority to take away your liberty. This is nothing new. The militia in its present form knows all too well the threat that looms over us all. Its job is to protect our rights, yours and mine. If you wonder who it is that makes up the militia then go into the bathroom and look in the mirror. You will find one of its many members looking back at you for, as the founders stated many times, the militia is the property of "we the people." Many of its members understand all too well that liberty entails responsibility. Know that there is nothing that you own that the militia wants, but there is much that we will help you to protect. We are the sword and the shield of liberty and your fellow countrymen. Take the time to know more and become part of the men and women who live by the words "This we'll defend." The militia.

"WHAT GOOD CAN A HANDGUN DO AGAINST AN ARMY.....?"
by Mike Vanderboegh

A friend of mine recently forwarded me a question a friend of his had posed:

"If/when our Federal Government comes to pilfer, pillage, plunder our property and destroy our lives, what good can a handgun do against an army with advanced weaponry, tanks, missiles, planes, or whatever else they might have at their disposal to achieve their nefarious goals? (I'm not being facetious: I accept the possibility that what happened in Germany, or similar, could happen here; I'm just not sure that the potential good from an armed citizenry in such a situation outweighs the day-to-day problems caused by masses of idiots who own guns.)"

If I may, I'd like to try to answer that question. I certainly do not think the writer facetious for asking it. The subject is a serious one that I have given much research and considerable thought to. I believe that upon the answer to this question depends the future of our Constitutional republic, our liberty and perhaps our lives. My friend Aaron Zelman, one of the founders of Jews for the Preservation of Firearms Ownership told me once:

"If every Jewish and anti-nazi family in Germany had owned a Mauser rifle and twenty rounds of ammunition AND THE WILL TO USE IT (emphasis supplied, MV), Adolf Hitler would be a little-known footnote to the history of the Weimar Republic."

Note well that phrase: "and the will to use it," for the simply-stated question, "What good can a handgun do against an army?", is in fact a complex one and must be answered at length and carefully. It is a military question. It is also a political question. But above all it is a moral question which strikes to the heart of what makes men free, and what makes them slaves. First, let's answer the military question.

Most military questions have both a strategic and a tactical component. Let's consider the tactical.

A friend of mine owns an instructive piece of history. It is a small, crude pistol, made out of sheet-metal stampings by the U.S. during World War II. While it fits in the palm of your hand and is a slowly-operated, single-shot arm, it's powerful .45 caliber projectile will kill a man with brutal efficiency. With a short, smooth-bore barrel it can reliably kill only at point blank ranges, so its use requires the will (brave or foolhardy) to get in close before firing. It is less a soldier's weapon than an assassin's tool. The U.S. manufactured them by the million during the war, not for our own forces but rather to be air-dropped behind German lines to resistance units in occupied Europe. Crude and slow (the fired case had to be knocked out of the breech by means of a little wooden dowel, a fresh round procured from the storage area in the grip and then manually reloaded and cocked) and so wildly inaccurate it couldn't hit the broad side of a French barn at 50 meters, to the Resistance man or woman who had no firearm it still looked pretty darn good.

The theory and practice of it was this: First, you approach a German sentry with your little pistol hidden in your coat pocket and, with Academy-award sincerity, ask him for a light for your cigarette (or the time the train leaves for Paris, or if he wants to buy some non-army-issue food or a half- hour with your "sister"). When he smiles and casts a nervous glance down the street to see where his Sergeant is at, you blow his brains out with your first and only shot, then take his rifle and ammunition. Your next few minutes are occupied with "getting out of Dodge," for such critters generally go around in packs. After that (assuming you evade your late benefactor's friends) you keep the rifle and hand your little pistol to a fellow Resistance fighter so they can go get their own rifle.

Or maybe you then use your rifle to get a submachine gun from the Sergeant when he comes running. Perhaps you get very lucky and pickup a light machine gun, two boxes of ammunition and a haversack of hand grenades. With two of the grenades and the expenditure of a half-a-box of ammunition at a hasty roadblock the next night, you and your friends get a truck full of arms and ammunition. (Some of the cargo is sticky with "Boche" blood, but you don't mind terribly.)

Pretty soon you've got the best armed little maquis unit in your part of France, all from that cheap little pistol and the guts to use it. (One wonders if the current political elite's opposition to so-called "Saturday Night Specials" doesn't come from some adopted racial memory of previous failed tyrants. Even cheap little pistols are a threat to oppressive regimes.)

They called the pistol the "Liberator." Not a bad name, all in all.

Now let's consider the strategic aspect of the question, "What good can a handgun do against an army....?" We have seen that even a poor pistol can make a great deal of difference to the military career and postwar plans of one enemy soldier. That's tactical. But consider what a million pistols, or a hundred million pistols (which may approach the actual number of handguns in the U.S. today), can mean to the military planner who seeks to carry out operations against a populace so armed. Mention "Afghanistan" or "Chechnya" to a member of the current Russian military hierarchy and watch them shudder at the bloody memories. Then you begin to get the idea that modern munitions, air superiority and overwhelming, precision-guided violence still are not enough to make victory certain when the targets are not sitting Christmas- present fashion out in the middle of the desert.

"A billion here, a billion there, sooner or later it adds up to real money."--Everett Dirksen

Consider that there are at least as many firearms-- handguns, rifles and shotguns-- as there are citizens of the United States. Consider that last year there were more than 14 million Americans who bought licenses to hunt deer in the country. 14 million-- that's a number greater than the largest five professional armies in the world combined. Consider also that those deer hunters are not only armed, but they own items of military utility-- everything from camouflage clothing to infrared "game finders", Global Positioning System devices and night vision scopes.

Consider also that quite a few of these hunters are military veterans. Just as moving around in the woods and stalking game are second nature, military operations are no mystery to them, especially those who were on the receiving end of guerrilla war in Southeast Asia. Indeed, such men, aging though they may be, may be more psychologically prepared for the exigencies of civil war (for this is what we are talking about) than their younger active-duty brother-soldiers whose only military experience involved neatly defined enemies and fronts in the Grand Campaign against Saddam. Not since 1861-1865 has the American military attempted to wage a war athwart its own logistical tail (nor indeed has it ever had to use modern conventional munitions on the Main Streets of its own hometowns and through its' relatives backyards, nor has it tested the obedience of soldiers who took a very different oath with orders to kill their "rebellious" neighbors, but that touches on the political aspect of the question).

But forget the psychological and political for a moment, and consider just the numbers. To paraphrase the Senator, "A million pistols here, a million rifles there, pretty soon you're talking serious firepower." No one, repeat, no one, will conquer America, from within or without, until its citizenry are disarmed. We remain, as a British officer had reason to complain at the start of our Revolution, "a people numerous and armed."

The Second Amendment is a political issue today only because of the military reality that underlies it. Politicians who fear the people seek to disarm them. People who fear their government's intentions refuse to be disarmed. The Founders understood this. So, too, does every tyrant who ever lived. Liberty-loving Americans forget it at their peril. Until they do, American gunowners in the aggregate represent a strategic military fact and an impediment to foreign tyranny. They also represent the greatest political challenge to home-grown would-be tyrants. If the people cannot be forcibly disarmed against their will, then they must be persuaded to give up their arms voluntarily. This is the siren song of "gun control," which is to say "government control of all guns," although few self-respecting gun-grabbers would be quite so bold as to phrase it so honestly.

Joseph Stalin, when informed after World War II that the Pope disapproved of Russian troops occupying Trieste, turned to his advisors and asked, "The Pope? The Pope? How many divisions does he have?" Dictators are unmoved by moral suasion. Fortunately, our Founders saw the wisdom of backing the First Amendment up with the Second. The "divisions" of the army of American constitutional liberty get into their cars and drive to work in this country every day to jobs that are hardly military in nature. Most of them are unmindful of the service they provide. Their arms depots may be found in innumerable closets, gunracks and gunsafes. They have no appointed officers, nor will they need any until they are mobilized by events. Such guardians of our liberty perform this service merely by existing. And although they may be an ever-diminishing minority within their own country, as gun ownership is demonized and discouraged by the ruling elites, still they are as yet more than enough to perform their vital task. And if they are unaware of the impediment they present to their would-be rulers, their would-be rulers are painfully aware of these "divisions of liberty", as evidenced by their incessant calls for individual disarmament. They understand moral versus military force just as clearly as Stalin, but they would not be so indelicate as to quote him.

The Roman Republic failed because they could not successfully answer the question, "Who Shall Guard the Guards?" The Founders of this Republic answered that question with both the First and Second Amendments. Like Stalin, the Clintonistas could care less what common folk say about them, but the concept of the armed citizenry as guarantors of their own liberties sets their teeth on edge and disturbs their statist sleep.

Governments, some great men once avowed, derive their legitimacy from "the consent of the governed." In the country that these men founded, it should not be required to remind anyone that the people do not obtain their natural, God-given liberties by "the consent of the Government." Yet in this century, our once great constitutional republic has been so profaned in the pursuit of power and social engineering by corrupt leaders as to be unrecognizable to the Founders. And in large measure we have ourselves to blame because at each crucial step along the way the usurpers of our liberties have obtained the consent of a majority of the governed to do what they have done, often in the name of "democracy"-- a political system rejected by the Founders. Another good friend of mine gave the best description of pure democracy I have ever heard. "Democracy," he concluded, "is three wolves and a sheep sitting down to vote on what to have for dinner." The rights of the sheep in this system are by no means guaranteed.

Now it is true that our present wolf-like, would-be rulers do not as yet seek to eat that sheep and its peaceable wooly cousins (We, the people). They are, however, most desirous that the sheep be shorn of taxes, and if possible and when necessary, be reminded of their rightful place in society as "good citizen sheep" whose safety from the big bad wolves outside their barn doors is only guaranteed by the omni-presence in the barn of the "good wolves" of the government. Indeed, they do not present themselves as wolves at all, but rather these lupines parade around in sheep's clothing, bleating insistently in falsetto about the welfare of the flock and the necessity to surrender liberty and property "for the children", er, ah, I mean "the lambs." In order to ensure future generations of compliant sheep, they are careful to educate the lambs in the way of "political correctness," tutoring them in the totalitarian faiths that "it takes a barnyard to raise a lamb" and "all animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others."

Every now and then, some tough old independent-minded ram refuses to be shorn and tries to remind the flock that they once decided affairs themselves according to the rule of law of their ancestors, and without the help of their "betters." When that happens, the fangs become apparent and the conspicuously unwilling are shunned, cowed, driven off or (occasionally) killed. But flashing teeth or not, the majority of the flock has learned over time not to resist the Lupine-Mandarin class which herds it. Their Founders, who were fiercely independent rams, would have long ago chased off such usurpers. Any present members of the flock who think like that are denounced as antediluvian or mentally deranged.

There are some of these dissidents the lupines would like to punish, but they dare not-- for their teeth are every bit as long as their "betters." Indeed, this is the reason the wolves haven't eaten any sheep in generations. To the wolves chagrin, this portion of the flock is armed and they outnumber the wolves by a considerable margin. For now the wolves are content are content to watch the numbers of these "armed sheep" diminish, as long teeth are no longer fashionable in polite society. (Indeed, they are considered by the literati to be an anachronism best forgotten and such sheep are dismissed by the Mandarins as "Tooth Nuts" or "Right Leg Fanatics".) When the numbers of armed sheep fall below a level that wolves can feel safe to do so, the eating will begin. The wolves are patient, and proceed by infinitesimal degrees like the slowly-boiling frog. It took them generations to lull the sheep into accepting them as rulers instead of elected representatives. If it takes another generation or two of sheep to complete the process, the wolves can wait. This is our "Animal Farm," without apology to George Orwell.

Even so, the truth is that one man with a pistol CAN defeat an army, given a righteous cause to fight for, enough determination to risk death for that cause, and enough brains, luck and friends to win the struggle. This is true in war but also in politics, and it is not necessary to be a Prussian militarist to see it. The dirty little secret of today's ruling elite as represented by the Clintonistas is that they want people of conscience and principle to be divided in as many ways as possible ("wedge issues" the consultants call them) so that they may be more easily manipulated. No issue of race, religion, class or economics is left unexploited. Lost in the din of jostling special interests are the few voices who point out that if we refuse to be divided from what truly unites us as a people, we cannot be defeated on the large issues of principle, faith, the constitutional republic and the rule of law. More importantly, woe and ridicule will be heaped upon anyone who points out that like the blustering Wizard of Oz, the federal tax and regulation machine is not as omniscient, omnipotent or fearsome as they would have us believe. Like the Wizard, they fan the scary flames higher and shout, "Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain!"

For the truth is, they are frightened that we will find out how pitifully few they are compared to the mass of the citizenry they seek to frighten into compliance with their tax collections, property seizures and bureaucratic, unconstitutional power-shifting. I strongly recommend everyone see the new animated movie "A Bug's Life". Simple truths may often be found sheltering beneath unlikely overhangs, there protected by the pelting storm of lies that soak us everyday. "A Bug's Life", a childrens' movie of all things, is just such a place.

The plot revolves around an ant hill on an unnamed island, where the ants placate predatory grasshoppers by offering them each year one-half of the food they gather (sounds a lot like the IRS, right?). Driven to desperation by the insatiable tax demands of the large, fearsome grasshoppers, one enterprising ant goes abroad seeking bug mercenaries who will return with him and defend the anthill when the grasshoppers return. (If this sounds a lot like an animated "Magnificent Seven", you're right.)

The grasshoppers (who roar about like some biker gang or perhaps the ATF in black helicopters, take your pick) are, at one point in the movie, lounging around in a bug cantina down in Mexico, living off the bounty of the land. The harvest seeds they eat are dispensed one at a time from an upturned bar bottle. Two grasshoppers suggest to their leader, a menacing fellow named "Hopper" (whose voice characterization by Kevin Spacey is suitably evil personified), that they should forget about the poor ants on the island. Here, they say, we can live off the fat of the land, why worry about some upstart ants? Hopper turns on them instantly. "Would you like a seed?" he quietly asks one. "Sure," answers the skeptical grasshopper thug. "Would you like one?" Hopper asks the other. "Yeah," says he. Hopper manipulates the spigot on the bar bottle twice, and distributes the seeds to them.

"So, you want to know why we have to go back to the island, do you?" Hopper asks menacingly as the thugs munch on their seeds. "I'll show you why!" he shouts, removing the cap from the bottle entirely with one quick blow. The seeds, no longer restrained by the cap, respond to gravity and rush out all at once, inundating the two grasshoppers and crushing them. Hopper turns to his remaining fellow grasshoppers and shrieks, "That's why!"

I'm paraphrasing from memory here, for I've only seen the movie once. But Hopper then explains, "Don't you remember the upstart ant on that island? They outnumber us a hundred to one. How long do you think we'll last if they ever figure that out?"

"If the ants are not frightened of us," Hopper tells them,

"our game is finished. We're finished."

Of course it comes as no surprise that in the end the ants figure that out. Would that liberty-loving Americans were as smart as animated ants.

Courage to stand against tyranny, fortunately, is not only found on videotape.

Courage flowers from the heart, from the twin roots of deeply-held principle and faith in God. There are American heroes living today who have not yet performed the deeds of principled courage that future history books will record. They have not yet had to stand in the gap, to plug it with their own fragile bodies and lives against the evil that portends. Not yet have they been required to pledge "their lives, their fortunes and their sacred honor." Yet they will have to. I believe with all my heart the lesson that history teaches: That each and every generation of Americans is given, along with the liberty and opportunity that is their heritage, the duty to defend America against the tyrannies of their day. Our father's father's fathers fought this same fight. Our mother's mother's mothers fought it as well. From the Revolution through the world wars, from the Cold War through to the Gulf, they fought to secure their liberty in conflicts great and small, within and without.

They stood faithful to the oath that our Founders gave us: To bear true faith and allegiance-- not to a man; not to the land; not to a political party, but to an idea. The idea is liberty, as codified in the Constitution of the United States. We swear, as did they, an oath to defend the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic. And throughout the years they paid in blood and treasure the terrible price of that oath. That was their day. This is ours. The clouds we can see on the horizon may be a simple rain or a vast hurricane, but there is a storm coming. Make no mistake.

Lincoln said that this nation cannot long exist half slave and half free. I say, if I may humbly paraphrase, that this nation cannot long exist one-third slave, one-third uncommitted, and one-third free. The slavery today is of the mind and soul not the body, but is slavery without a doubt that the Clintons and their toadies are pushing. It is slavery to worship our nominally-elected representatives as our rulers instead of requiring their trustworthiness as our servants. It is slavery of the mind and soul that demands that God-given rights that our Forefathers secured with their blood and sacrifice be traded for false security of a nanny-state which will tend to our "legitimate needs" as they are perceived by that government.

It is slavery to worship humanism as religion and slavery to deny life and liberty to unborn Americans. As people of faith in God, whatever our denomination, we are in bondage to a plantation system that steals our money; seizes our property; denies our ancient liberties; denies even our very history, supplanting it with sanitized and politicized "correctness"; denies our children a real public education; denies them even the mention of God in school; denies, in fact, the very existence of God.

So finally we are faced with, we must return to, the moral component of the question: "What good can a handgun do against an army?" The answer is "Nothing," or "Everything." The outcome depends upon the mind and heart and soul of the man or woman who holds it. One may also ask, "What good can a sling in the hands of a boy do against a marauding giant?" If your cause is just and righteous much can be done, not only if you are willing to risk the consequences of failure and to bear the burdens of eternal vigilance. A new friend of mine gave me a plaque the other day. Upon it is written these words by Winston Churchill, a man who knew much about fighting tyranny:

"Still, if you will not fight for the right when you can easily win without bloodshed; if you will not fight when your victory will be sure and not too costly; you may come to the moment when you will have to fight with all the odds against you and only a precarious chance of survival. There may be a worse case. You may have to fight when there is no hope of victory, because it is better to perish than to live as slaves."

The Spartans at Thermopolae knew this. The fighting Jews of Masada knew this, when every man, woman and child died rather than submit to Roman tyranny. The Texans who died at the Alamo knew this. The frozen patriots of Valley Forge knew this. The "expendable men" of Bataan and Corregidor knew this. If there is one lesson of Hitlerism and the Holocaust, it is that free men, if they wish to remain free, must resist would-be tyrants at the first opportunity and at every opportunity. Remember that whether they the come as conquerors or elected officials, the men who secretly wish to be your murderers must first convince you that you must accept them as your masters. Free men and women must not wait until they are "selected", divided and herded into Warsaw Ghettos, there to finally fight desperately, almost without weapons, and die outnumbered. The tyrant must be met at the door when he appears. At your door, or mine, wherever he shows his bloody appetite. He must be met by the pistol which can defeat an army. He must be met at every door, for in truth we outnumber him and his henchmen. It matters not whether they call themselves Communists or Nazis or something else. It matters not what flag they fly, nor what uniform they wear. It matters not what excuses they give for stealing your liberty, your property or your life. "By their works ye shall know them."

The time is late. Those who once has trouble reading the hour on their watches have no trouble seeing by the glare of the fire at Waco. Few of us realized at the time that the Constitution was burning right along with the Davidians. Now we know better.

We have had the advantage of that horrible illumination for more than five years now-- five years in which the rule of law and the battered old parchment of our beloved Constitution have been smashed, shredded and besmirched by the Clintonistas. In this process they have been aided and abetted by the cowardly incompetence of the "opposition" Republican leadership, a fact made crystal clear by the Waco hearings. They have forgotten Daniel Webster's warning: "Miracles do not cluster. Hold on to the Constitution of the United States of America and the Republic for which it stands-- what has happened once in six thousand years may never happen again. Hold on to your Constitution, for if the American Constitution shall fail there will be anarchy throughout the world."

Yet being able to see what has happened has not helped us reverse, or even slow, the process. The sad fact is that we may have to resign ourselves to the prospect of having to maintain our principles and our liberty in the face of becoming a disenfranchised minority within our own country.

The middle third of the populace, it seems, will continue to waffle in favor of the enemies of the Constitution until their comfort level with the economy is endangered. They've got theirs, Jack. The Republicans, who we thought could represent our interests and protect the Constitution and the rule of law, have been demonstrated to be political eunuchs. Alan Keyes was dead right when he characterized the last election as one between "the lawless Democrats and the gutless Republicans." The spectacular political failures of our current leaders are unrivaled in our history unless you recall the unprincipled jockeying for position and tragi-comedy of misunderstanding and miscommunication which lead to our first Civil War.

And make no mistake, it is civil war which may be the most horrible corollary of the Law of Unintended Consequences as it applies to the Clintonistas and their destruction of the rule of law. Because such people have no cause for which they are willing to die (all morality being relativistic to them, and all principles compromisable), they cannot fathom the motives or behavior of people who believe that there are some principles worth fighting and dying for. Out of such failures of understanding come wars. Particularly because although such elitists would not risk their own necks in a fight, they have no compunction about ordering others in their pay to fight for them. It is not the deaths of others, but their own deaths, that they fear. As a Christian, I cannot fear my own death, but rather I am commanded by my God to live in such a way as to make my death a homecoming. That this makes me incomprehensible and threatening to those who wish to be my masters is something I can do little about. I would suggest to them that they not poke their godless, tyrannical noses down my alley. As the coiled rattlesnake flag of the Revolution bluntly stated: "Don't Tread on Me!" Or, as our state motto here in Alabama says: "We Dare Defend Our Rights."

But can a handgun defeat an army? Yes. It remains to be seen whether the struggle of our generation against the tyrants of our day in the first decade of the 21st Century will bring a restoration of liberty and the rule of law or a dark and bloody descent into chaos and slavery.

If it is to be the former, I will meet you at the new Yorktown. If it is to be the latter, I will meet you at Masada. But I will not be a slave. And I know that whether we succeed or fail, if we should fall along the way our graves will one day be visited by other free Americans, thanking us that we did not forget that, with the help of Almighty God, in the hands of a free man a handgun CAN defeat a tyrant's army.